Report meant to help govt deal with pandemic, says TIB; stands by survey

Transparency International Bangladesh yesterday said instead of terming its report on the government's Covid-19 response "false and motivated", the government could better combat the pandemic by taking the measures recommended in the report.

The graft watchdog said its main objective is to support the government with analysis of research findings on how the government's measures can be more transparent and accountable.

TIB hopes that the authorities concerned will accept the findings of the report by adopting a neutral and impersonal perspective, said a statement. 

The authorities can dedicate themselves to enhancing their capacity, transparency and accountability so that the government's pandemic response become a success, it added.

The TIB report titled "Tackling Coronavirus Pandemic: Governance Challenges in Covid-19 Vaccine Management" was released on June 8.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque at a later event reportedly said the report was "false information from the beginning to end". The health minister also said TIB officials' criticisms were fiction because they were "sitting inside air-conditioned rooms".

In yesterday's statement, TIB said one could not say that the report was false, adding that TIB collected data from both primary and secondary sources while adhering to internationally recognised research methodology in the field of social science and verified each data against multiple sources.

As primary sources, a total of 59 vaccine centres have been randomly selected in 43 districts of eight divisions, says the statement.

From the selected centres, experiences of 1,387 people who took the vaccine were brought to the fore by taking "exit poll" interviews. Besides, vaccine management activities at the selected centres have been brought to the fore through direct observation, it adds.

As secondary sources, information published on the websites of different government and non-government organisations, as well as information from news reports were collected and analysed, says the statement. The source of each data used in the research has been mentioned, it adds.